I was wrong! Dead wrong! When Cindy Sheehan was eclipsed by the news that Bush was arranging the deaths of thousands of Black voters in Louisiana, I announced her passage into Media obscurity. It seems however, that Katrina, her rival for stardom, was not the lady the Media hoped for. Katrina has come and gone, and though her deadliness was greatly hyped, she was not deadly enough to bring down the President.
So Cindy is back in the limelight and enjoying every minute of her resurrection. Those who question the assertion, made only on this website, that the Media is the ruling Class and has a relentlessly pursued political agenda, may do well to ask themselves a simple question. Why is this lady receiving so much Media publicity? After all, there are many mothers and fathers of soldiers who have died in Iraq, and many who have spoken in support of the War. They do not interest any part of the Media.
Last week, US newspapers across the Nation, were in lockstep in announcing that Cindy was moving her anti-war protest to the White House in Washington. Typical of this agenda, was the piece in the San Jose Mercury News on September 22nd, by Jim Puzzanghera. Beside a large posed picture of Cindy approaching the gate of the White House with a ‘poster-size’ letter for Bush, Jim has three columns to tell us that she will be leading a big anti war demonstration on Saturday, and if you can’t make it to Washington, there will be a companion demo in San Francisco.
Cindy told him ‘A lot of these people who are there [she refers to the White House presumably] are criminals, and we need to get them out of our house’. Jim also tells us revealingly that Cindy ‘became a celebrity as she planted herself outside the vacationing Bush’s ranch for nearly a month and demanded a meeting. She never got it. But her protest at “Camp Casey” drew about 12,000 war opponents and intense media coverage’ (my italics). There is a brief mention of parents who support the war, but clearly Jim is keen to get Cindy and her cause back into the limelight and uses the piece to promote her campaign.
We should not be surprised that the Saturday anti-war march drew large numbers of demonstrators (the media crowed of 100,000 and usually exaggerates) and the pro-war march drew only 2,000. (200 according to the media). There are several reasons why conservative demos are almost always small.
Leftist demos receive huge advance free publicity from across the media and are actually orchestrated by the Media Class. Conservative demos are ignored or downplayed before the event.
During the event, Leftist demos are welcomed and celebrated by the Media. Like an aging actress, they are photographed from the best angle and speeches carefully edited for good soundbites on newscasts. Conservative demos are coldly received by reserve team reporters and comments and speeches edited in order to disparage the participants.
After the event, Leftist demos are headline news. Lets forget the conservative ones!
The effect of all this is to make Leftists feel as though they are making history by marching. Publicity keeps their collective adrenalin flowing and they feel good about themselves on the basis of mass posturing.
There is another factor at work. Most conservatives are family people who take family responsibilities seriously. They go to work in real jobs, they mature, they raise families, and have little time or energy left for gesture politics. Some even enlist to serve their country. Leftists demonstrations are mostly composed of the permanently angry, permanently adolescent, many of whom live off the State or the subsidies of their dysfunctional families. For them, demos are both an occupation and a social event.
Today I salute those Conservatives who demonstrate against all the odds the Media Class can create and only wish I could have been there with you in Washington. For those readers in the UK, support free speech by demonstrating in Yorkshire at Nick Griffin’s approaching trial. Griffin is wrong about the Iraq War and many other things, but defend his and his party’s right to promulgate their views. One thing you can be sure of – the UK Media Class will not be orchestrating the BNP demo!